I love credit cards so much!

[havaneselover]

Thank you. It's the Ink Preferred. I may go with the Amex and cash back here but open a DVA since we go to WDW a few times per year.

It's worth opening but I think as of now the bonus is only for spending through 12/31. Hopefully they will extend it.

 

[eeyoresmom]

It's worth opening but I think as of now the bonus is only for spending through 12/31. Hopefully they will extend it.

The 2% bonus with the DVA is not permanent? Why would anyone park $$$ there with zero return. Rhetorical question, no reply necessary.

 

[eeyoresmom]

If I decide to charge my annual passes to my CSR does anyone know if I'll get the $300 annual credit? Still trying to decide between that and Amex at 6%.

 

[havaneselover]

The 2% bonus with the DVA is not permanent? Why would anyone park $$$ there with zero return. Rhetorical question, no reply necessary.

If they don't extend the bonus I certainly won't continue using it.

 

[Kbmas0n]

HMM...we applied for my husband's Business SW card on 4/2 and got the "need 30 days". I called the automated number a few days and it said approved. But we still haven't gotten his card. I tried to call the automated number again this morning and kept getting live person - OH THE HORROR!!! He also applied for the Personal SW card and got an email instantly that he was approved. But no email about his SW Business.

I'm feeling paranoid. I guess I should give it a few more days and then have him call? It just seems like it's taking a REALLY long time to get these cards in the mail! I got my Freedom approved last week and still haven't gotten anything in the mail. I've got some good spend coming up and am just waiting for the cards!

ETA: I'm an idiot and was calling the wrong number. So there's that. I found the correct automated number, both applications were approved! Now just waiting! I HATE WAITING!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

HMM...we applied for my husband's Business SW card on 4/2 and got the "need 30 days". I called the automated number a few days and it said approved. But we still haven't gotten his card. I tried to call the automated number again this morning and kept getting live person - OH THE HORROR!!! He also applied for the Personal SW card and got an email instantly that he was approved. But no email about his SW Business.

I'm feeling paranoid. I guess I should give it a few more days and then have him call? It just seems like it's taking a REALLY long time to get these cards in the mail! I got my Freedom approved last week and still haven't gotten anything in the mail. I've got some good spend coming up and am just waiting for the cards!

ETA: I'm an idiot and was calling the wrong number. So there's that. I found the correct automated number, both applications were approved! Now just waiting! I HATE WAITING!

I am waiting on my Marriott card too. I have a stay at Marriott next week, so I am really hoping that it arrives by Monday next week, otherwise I won't be able to use my card. Since it is a work trip and I will get reimbursed for the cost, I really want it to go towards my minimum spend.

 

[Albort]

I am waiting on my Marriott card too. I have a stay at Marriott next week, so I am really hoping that it arrives by Monday next week, otherwise I won't be able to use my card. Since it is a work trip and I will get reimbursed for the cost, I really want it to go towards my minimum spend.

i thought Marriott is a premie card, couldnt u get them to next day air it 2 u?

 

[AmyAnne]

Hotel experts: which card should I apply for if I were planning for a 5-night hotel stay in London in December? I seem to recall reading about 5th-night-free offers but now that I might have a five-night trip to plan, I can't find that information.

The only hotel card I have is the Fairmont. I can't apply for any that fall under Chase's 5/24 rule.

I know the AmEx SPG and the IHG card have been mentioned here - would either specifically help with this trip?

 

[Albort]

Hotel experts: which card should I apply for if I were planning for a 5-night hotel stay in London in December? I seem to recall reading about 5th-night-free offers but now that I might have a five-night trip to plan, I can't find that information.

The only hotel card I have is the Fairmont. I can't apply for any that fall under Chase's 5/24 rule.

I know the AmEx SPG and the IHG card have been mentioned here - would either specifically help with this trip?

Get a Citi TY Prestige.

edit: 4th night free. does come with a $450 af.

 

[calypso726]

@calypso726 , thank you. How does transferring to a FF program increase the points value? Is there a downside to doing this?

It all depends on the pricing of the ticket. So if I want to use 100,000 CSR UR points to pay for a RT flight flight through the UR portal I have $1500 worth of points. Let's say United has a RT award flight available to book with miles for 100,000 United miles but that same flight costs $15,000 to purchase. I don't have enough UR points to purchase a $15k flight through the UR portal with my points. So I can't buy the flight. But, I can transfer my 100,000 UR points 1:1 to United. Now I can book the flight with miles and I technically just got $15,000 worth of value for my points. That is of course assuming I would ever pay that much money for a flight. I wouldn't pay $15k, but I might have been willing to pay more than $1500 for that flight OOP so now I got more value for my points by using them as miles.

The downside is that you don't earn FF miles on award flights. I've been on a good number of first class international and domestic flights over the last 5 years of playing this game and have always transferred my UR points to United or BA. The first time I've used my points as money to pay for a flight was just a few months ago when we booked the Delta flights to Iceland.

The 2% bonus with the DVA is not permanent? Why would anyone park $$$ there with zero return. Rhetorical question, no reply necessary.

They have extended it every year so far. Some people have had a $1500 return by using the DVA.

 

[tink1970]

Hotel experts: which card should I apply for if I were planning for a 5-night hotel stay in London in December? I seem to recall reading about 5th-night-free offers but now that I might have a five-night trip to plan, I can't find that information.

The only hotel card I have is the Fairmont. I can't apply for any that fall under Chase's 5/24 rule.

I know the AmEx SPG and the IHG card have been mentioned here - would either specifically help with this trip?

Can't help you with the 4th or 5th night free... but I am DEFINITELY over the 5/24 for Chase and just now was approved for the IHG card (I did have to call the recon line and switch around some credit but who really needs 34K on one card?). It is known to be one that doesn't fall under the 5/24 rule so if you think you'll use it (I'm eyeing the Prague Intercontinental for next year!), just a another data point!

It's too bad that the Savoy has such strict rules for Fairmont certificates I just booked my 3 day Vancouver whale watching jaunt with my 2 free nights

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

i thought Marriott is a premie card, couldnt u get them to next day air it 2 u?

I did call and request it, but they said it was unavailable.

 

[havaneselover]

They have extended it every year so far. Some people have had a $1500 return by using the DVA.

I started using it in 2015. The date has been 12/31/17 since then as far as I know--I'm not aware of them pushing it out a year but certainly could have missed something.

 

[Eighty8Keys]

I started using it in 2015. The date has been 12/31/17 since then as far as I know--I'm not aware of them pushing it out a year but certainly could have missed something.

I started using it in 2014 and the date was 12/31/15.

Edited: our original trip date was January 2016 so we planned to pay off as much as we could in 2015 to get the bonus before the deadline. We ended up postponing until January 2017 and by then they had extended the deadline.

 

[AmyAnne]

Get a Citi TY Prestige.

edit: 4th night free. does come with a $450 af.

Thanks for this suggestion. I need to look more at Citi cards - the only one I have is the Costco card that i got by default.

I'm not sure this card would be the best option for this trip. We probably will fly United and use United miles. The fourth night free would help but that still leaves four nights to pay for. The 50,000 points from the sign-up bonus look like they can be transferred to airlines but not sure about hotels?

 

[havaneselover]

I started using it in 2014 and the date was 12/31/15.

That's good to know. I notice they also say "subject to extension." That certainly makes me feel better about the odds of the bonus being extended.

 

[AmyAnne]

Can't help you with the 4th or 5th night free... but I am DEFINITELY over the 5/24 for Chase and just now was approved for the IHG card (I did have to call the recon line and switch around some credit but who really needs 34K on one card?). It is known to be one that doesn't fall under the 5/24 rule so if you think you'll use it (I'm eyeing the Prague Intercontinental for next year!), just a another data point!

It's too bad that the Savoy has such strict rules for Fairmont certificates I just booked my 3 day Vancouver whale watching jaunt with my 2 free nights

I was really pleased that I was able to get Hamilton Chicago tickets - for that trip, we'll only need two nights so the Fairmont certificate was perfect. The problem with getting one or two free nights is then you have to pay for the other nights - which for someplace like the Savoy would probably at least partially defeat the cost-saving purpose. Of course, I'm sure the Savoy is fabulous, but I would wager that one night there would pay for several nights at our typical hotel (which last London trip was a Hilton).

 

[Albort]

Thanks for this suggestion. I need to look more at Citi cards - the only one I have is the Costco card that i got by default.

I'm not sure this card would be the best option for this trip. We probably will fly United and use United miles. The fourth night free would help but that still leaves four nights to pay for. The 50,000 points from the sign-up bonus look like they can be transferred to airlines but not sure about hotels?

Partners are
Airlines - JetBlue, Cathay Pacific, Eithad, Eva Airways, Air France/KLM, Garuda Indonesia, Malaysia, Qantas. Singapore, Thai, Virgin Atlantic
Hotels - Hilton
Misc - Sears

Few things the prestige wins in vs a CSR.
Trip Cancellation - although Prestige only reimburse $5000 vs $10000 on the CSR, the benefits allow your to book other outbound flights. so if you were to cancel ur trip and you need to fly to another destination, Prestige should cover the cost.
Trip delay - Prestige is 4 hours before benefit kicks in, CSR is 6 hours.

Prestige Categories are a bit more generous. 3x on travel/Hotel, 2x on dining/gas, 1x everything else

4th night free as mentioned.

one thing i do really like about citi cards is retention. I have the one below Prestige, which adds 2x on all categories, Prestige retention will give u +5 more... so 8x on travel, 7x on dining/gas, 6x everything else. up to 35k/6month period.

CSR wins in travel credit($300 on CSR, $250 on Prestige), and Priority pass(unlimited guest with CSR, 2 guest for Prestige)
CSR wins in Car insurance in the states, Prestige will ride 2ndary in states. out of country, pretige will ride primary.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Speaking of dh & I both getting Marriott cards, I thought I would share my 'horror' story with you all that still haunts me as I have gotten into this cc travel hacking thing. So, 4 years ago, we decided to sell the house we had lived in for 12 years and either buy another in the same area we lived in b/c we needed more space OR maybe move back to TX where we are from. Our house sold super fast and we weren't sure what we wanted to do so we decided to move into an extended stay hotel while dh applied for jobs in TX and we tried to decide. We ended up in a Marriott Town Place. When I went to look at it before we moved, the manager suggested I open the Marriott CC. It had a 70k signup bonus plus she was impressing upon me how many points we could earn since we would be there for awhile. I politely declined not having a clue what I was turning down. We lived there for 3 1/2 mos. I have no idea how many points we would have racked up but the thought of what could have been makes me want to cry. I was so, so dumb about stuff like this. I guess most people are but I hope I never am again.

We did similar 2years ago. Sold before finding new house. Lived in my sister's basement for 6 weeks. No points for that. Count yourself lucky.
(I probably wouldn't have thought about CC points either. I looked at ES hotels & couldn't swallow the $ while paying for storage units too)

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I did call and request it, but they said it was unavailable.

They told me the same. Was told it takes 10 days to confirm your Marriott account and send out the card. I was bummed too.
ETA: I checked and received the card exactly 10 days after approval. 3/7 to 3/17